“
Now and then. It’s... she’s a grown woman, it’s not...”
Edie hugged his arm. “You don’t have to. I’m sorry I pried in your private stuff.”
“Not like I don’t pry in your shit.
“
True. But it’s not the same.”
There was another silence, and he thought about it. That he should call Susanna, she’d withdrawn and part of him blamed himself for letting her get away with doing that. Because of all the shit after the divorce, he came here, hid away from it all, and by the time he got his head out of his ass, it was too late. Just one of many mistakes in his life.
“She’s missing out, your daughter. Just thought you should know that you’re great.”
“
Thank you, love.” Those simple words meant more to him that he’d expected. He took her hand.
She didn't answer that and for quite sometime and they sat in silence. Then it happened; the sun came up, and he could hear her take a deep breath, and he hugged her tighter. She really wasn’t about the expensive stuff.
“I'm betting this is better than trying to sleep the day away,” he mumbled.
“
Yes. This is better, Vasco.”
“
Glad to hear it, Kid.” He kissed her forehead. “Happy day after birthday.”
That made her laugh. “I think I could be okay with doing this next year as well.”
“Okay. Just you and me, hun'. And a boyfriend if you have one.”
“
Is this about Dawg?” He could hear the teasing in her voice.
“
I don’t know. Is it?”
“
People don’t change, Vasco.”
“
Honey, the only constant in nature is that everything changes. All of it, everything, down to the smallest cells are in constant change or transformation. People, too.”
“
I'm not sure I believe that,” she mumbled.
“
They do, Edie. Not in the blink of an eye, but over time they do. Sometimes the change is just too slow for us to notice. Especially when we're close to them.”
“
I’m scared that if... I go there, with him... that it'll ruin it. I'm not sure I'd be able to trust that I'd be enough. Even for a short time.”
That was a sound fear when it came to Dawg, he had to admit that.
“Give him time. He’ll figure out that family is the important thing, not just to have around, but to have to come home to.”
“
Like you did?”
There was a sharpness in her voice and she was right. He’d fucked that up, but before he could respond she spoke again.
“That was below the belt. Sorry.”
“
It was, but even jabs below the belt can be the truth,” he admitted and gave the top of her head a kiss. “I did realize those things. I just did it too late. Even if I fucked it up, I do know what’s important now. I just had to lose it to understand it. And he’s young. Like I said, sometimes things happen and you figure out what’s important.”
“
Are you trying to push me to try to get together with Dawg?”
“
I don’t know. I’m just saying you shouldn’t write him off just yet. Okay?”
“
Okay.”
“
You're two people I love, you like being together and I'd hate for you to not give him a chance simply because you're scared. Being scared is never a good reason to pass up a chance to have someone love you.” He looked at her and her eyes were turned towards the horizon. “I'm not saying you should. I'm saying that if you don't, you need a better reason than being scared.”
She smiled and turned her head towards him. “How did you become such a wise dude?”
“I fucked up. More than once,” he laughed. “Ready to go home?”
“
Yeah. Next year?”
“
Next year,” he said with a firm nod. “You can bet on it, hun'.”
-o0o-
Brick saw Vasco getting off his bike and coming up to him. The man looked like each and every one of his sixty five years.
“
How did it go?”
“
Fine. Got her out of the bed, to a restaurant and out in the desert. She’s fine.”
“
Thanks, old man. Really.” He gave him a hug. “I know you’re tired, but I need you at the table. Got some info you all need to hear.”
Vasco nodded and walked into the clubhouse. The rest of them showed up while Vasco poured two cups of coffee down his throat to be able to stay awake.
He sat down at the end of the table and watched as the rest of them took their places. Dawg and Vasco were the last one inside, and Dawg closed the door behind them. He waited for them all to calm down and shut up.
The club’s main source of income wasn't the strip clubs or the garage. It was muling drugs and diamonds, both of those coming in from South America, passing through Mexico and smuggled over the border into the US.
Marauders had three charters close to Mexican border: Greenville, Presidio in Texas and Las Cruses in New Mexico. Cannabis made up the bulk of the drugs they pushed, but there were some of the heavier ones on rare occasion. Not often, because the cartel preferred bigger players for that, players who could supply more manpower than the Marauders could. They also wanted to keep the heavy drugs separated from the diamonds because, as opposed to the attention cocaine and heroine got, diamond smuggling was hardly ever discussed in the media.
They’d opened up for it when the Kimberly Process certifyin was introduced to the world in an attempt to prevent blood diamonds on the market, and Marauders had jumped at the chance. The risks involved in smuggling diamonds were a lot smaller than drugs. Less money, but still good money for a club their size. Brick had liked the idea since it took them from the heavy things that really caught the attention of groups on both sides of the law.
A lot of the diamonds from conflict areas were passed through countries where they could get fake KP certificates and sold more or less legitimate. For example, despite not having an official diamond industry, Congo exported large amounts. But some were simply smuggled and sold to less picky traders. That meant a lot less hassle and more money directly into the smuggler's own pockets. It also let them circumvent the big official diamond dealers, who kept the sales controlled to keep demand and prices up. It was a little known fact that diamonds were actually more common in nature than a lot of other precious stones, but by controlling the sales they were still more valuable on the market.
It wasn’t much of a problem to sell uncertified diamonds; the only ones asking for certificates were the authorities. It was easy for shops to have legit diamonds on display and sell whatever shit they wanted to customers. Very few customers asked for a certificate; in most cases they didn't know about certificates existing or what blood diamonds were.
The problem coming up was that they had a double shipment coming in, both drugs and diamonds. Brick preferred to keep the two separated as much as possible, simply since they had very different delivery chains. The clientele for pot and diamonds weren’t exactly the same, to say the least. Also, the diamonds were just transported by them. When it was mixed with cannabis, something they repacked before distribution, it was a fucking logistical mess as far as he was concerned.
He noticed that the members had finally gone quiet.
“We have a mixed shipment coming our way.” There were some spread groans around the table. “I know, I’ve called the Presidio Charter. They’re coming with us on this and we’re splitting up. We’ll take the pot to our warehouse and they’ll take the diamonds and head up north.”
Almost all of the diamonds they muled were going up to New York, since it was one of the biggest trading hubs for diamonds in the world. This shipment was no different.
“It’s a fucking mess when they do it like that. We’ve told them we keep the pipelines separated,” Bear muttered. “And we're doing it because they
asked
us to.”
“
I know,” Brick said and held up his hand, “Pot and diamonds are at least a better combination than when they throw coke in the mix.”
Wolf nodded, “Yeah. I’ll call Meego.” Meego was the Road Captain in the Presidio charter.
“Yeah, set that shit up.”
“
Is it decided which tunnel it’s coming through?” Vasco asked.
“
No. We’ll get that the day before, but they’ll give me an area within the next couple of days.” He looked at Wolf. “So you can plan a rough route as least.”
He didn’t give any further details. Both Wolf and Meego knew the drill. They’d have a third group taking the main roads to attract attention. You weren't made a road captain if you didn’t know those basic fucking things, and the clubs along the borders had the best RCs there were.
“Are they packed separately or do we need to stop to re-pack twice?” Wolf asked and lit a smoke. He was referring to them having to re-pack to separate the two products and then re-pack the pot once more to get the cut they'd keep for themselves. “The best would be if we could just load the diamonds and have them on their way immediately.”
“
I’ll talk to them, tell them we want it separately, shouldn't be a problem. I’ll get back to you on the amounts as well.”
They talked a while about the groups. They were gonna have the decoy group with both clubs’ members who'd split up once along the road to nowhere in particular. He was gonna figure out the groups along with the President of the Presidio. He needed to think about that some more; he kept changing the groups, mostly to fuck with cops in case they were keeping tabs on them. Then they went through the normal club stuff; that was quickly done.
The others left, but Vasco was still sitting down, so he assumed he wanted to talk, which was fine with Brick. Vasco was good to bounce ideas off.
“
Who are you putting in the decoy group?” he asked the second the door was closed behind Mech.
“
I’m trying to figure out if I want the fast riders in that one or if it’s better to have them...” he sighed.
“
I’d put our fastest drivers with the pot, put the Presidio’s fast riders in the decoy group and have the diamonds cruising. They won't find the stones even if they're pulled over.”
“
Yeah. That’s what I thought.”
Diamonds were extremely easy to hide, and it was always good to have the best drivers with the drugs.
“So what’s the problem?” Vasco asked with a raised eyebrow.
“
No problem. Just like to bounce shit off you,” he answered with a smile and got up.
Vasco laughed and shook his head. “Sometimes things are more obvious when you say them out loud.”
Brick gave him a hug. “Talk to Mel, she was worried. And then go and get some fucking sleep.”
The old man walked through the clubhouse with tired steps
-o0o-
Monday, August 14
th
IT WAS FIVE DAYS
after my birthday and I was walking into a coffee shop to meet with Dawg. He’d called and told me he had a surprise. When I came he was already seated and had a black, regular coffee placed for me on the opposite side of the table. That wasn’t what I looked at, though. My focus was on the giftwrapped thing lying next to it.
I sat down and pointed at it.
“What’s that?”
“
Hello, Edie. How are you. Me? I’m fine, thank you. Good to hear.” He stopped talking and pointed at the gift. “Ah, yes, that’s your present.”
He hated when I ignored the convention with saying hi and stuff. I had no idea why, but I liked doing things that annoyed him. That's why I kept the My Little Pony he'd painted on my truck. It really bugged him.
“
Why are you giving me a present?”
“
Well, according to Vasco, you just had your birthday. He did say that you don’t celebrate it, so it’s not a birthday gift. It’s a ‘congratulations you let a dirty old man fondle all your panties’ gift.”
I couldn’t help it, I laughed. “He didn’t
fondle
them, he
folded
them.”
“
I hope you notice how much alike those two words are, fondle and fold,” he pointed at me. “The reason they’re so alike is because it’s pretty much the same thing. Open the gift.”
“
It’s was underwear! And it was clean!”
“
I know,” he had his huge dawg smile. “Ladies’ panties.”
“
You know on a maturity-scale from one to hundred, I don’t think you’d even reach double digits.”
“
I would!” He protested. “I’d reach sixty-nine on that scale.”
“
Maturity-scale, Dawg, not sex proficiency scale.”
“
Oh, I’d hit more than sixty-nine on that scale.”
“
Suure. Bet you got mad skills in the sack.” I said and picked up the gift. “Is this a picture of you naked then?”